


Cuts and Bruises

by Mandalorianess



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, happy but angsty ending, it's kinda corny in some places, thats what wolfy22 said
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29558502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mandalorianess/pseuds/Mandalorianess
Summary: He hates to see her leave, knowing she will get hurt, knowing that depending on what kind of fight she’s participating in her life could be in danger.“Cara…” he starts, intending to assure her once more that she doesn’t need to pay him…but he doesn’t finish his sentence, she would just say what she always says:“Sure I need to pay rent, I live on your ship, so I pay for it.”She looks at him over her shoulder, with a questioning expression.“… Just take care of yourself” He finally says, glad she can’t see the sorrow in his eyes.“You going soft, Djarin?” she teases, that indescribably beautiful and intriguing smile gracing her bitten lips.‘Dank farrik, why does she have to be so stubborn?’he thinks.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Cara Dune
Comments: 12
Kudos: 43





	Cuts and Bruises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wolfy22](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfy22/gifts).



> wolfy22 gave me these two prompts: "kissing someone’s cuts/bruises/scratches" and "squishing their cheeks (with Cara or Din and Grogu)"... Well, this fic is what came out of it  
> As always, thank you for proofreading wolfy22 <3

He watches her as she quickly gets down on her knees to first slightly nudge the kid's tiny nose before she finally softly squishes his cheek, causing the little one to coo. “Lucky charm” she once called it, and from that day on she always performed that little ritual before she left the Razor Crest to fight some fight in some cantina for some lousy credits, just to give them to him when she came back, bruised and bleeding. No matter how often he told her that she doesn’t need to pay him any rent to live with him on the Crest, she just wouldn’t listen to him.

He hates to see her leave, knowing she will get hurt, knowing that depending on what kind of fight she’s participating in her life could be in danger.

“Cara…” he starts, intending to assure her once more that she doesn’t need to pay him…but he doesn’t finish his sentence, she would just say what she always says: _“Sure I need to pay rent, I live on your ship, so I pay for it.”_

She looks at him over her shoulder, with a questioning expression.

“… Just take care of yourself” He finally says, glad she can’t see the sorrow in his eyes.

“You going soft, Djarin?” she teases, that indescribably beautiful and intriguing smile gracing her bitten lips. 

_‘Dank farrik, why does she have to be so stubborn?’_ he thinks. 

He knows exactly that she's doing him a favor by helping him find the Jedi and still, she won’t accept free lodging. But he will be damned if he ever stops offering it to her. She is the only person he fully trusts right now. More than once he thought about showing his face to her, that’s how much she means to him. 

He had lied to her on Sorgan when he told her that once he took off his helmet in front of someone, he could never put it back on again… He could take it off in front of someone if they were connected by love and that someone has never wanted to see his face before…Of course, he could also take it off in front of his clan, his family.

He long had come to terms with the fact that what he felt for Cara must be love, but he wasn’t so sure if that feeling was requited… It probably wasn’t.

His Mandalorian buir once told him once he fell in love he would see that the creed isn’t everything, that it shouldn’t be more important than love. He had awkwardly huffed behind his helmet and told her that he would never fall in love. Love is for fools he had thought, and partly he had been right. Love apparently could hurt like hell if it was one-sided, but it must be the best feeling in all worlds if it was requited. It must be overwhelming to look the person one loves directly in the eyes, without an adulterant visor.  
He’s sure it would feel amazing to touch Cara’s soft, but scarred skin not only to tend her wounds, but to worship and explore her body.

Time always feels like an endlessly slowly stretching gum when he is waiting for her to return from a fight. 

He feeds the kid, takes a shower with him, eats something himself, before he finally prepares his medical supplies, to take care of Cara’s injuries, when she's back. He goes up to the cockpit, taking the little one with him to avoid a tantrum out of protest, the kid too, always seems to be on edge when Cara fights. Sometimes Din wonders if he can somehow sense her, even if she isn’t near him. Although Cara denies it she and his little green monster somehow have a strong bond. After a nightmare, the only place the kid would sleep again is her soft chest and he can’t blame him for it even though, the kid is of course just enjoying the warmth and softness without second thoughts. 

By Mandalore, sometimes he’s even a little jealous of his son. He’d loved to lay his head against her chest, but his kriffing helmet was always in the way. Even when there has been an opportunity to get closer, he always felt like the helmet provided a certain feeling of distance.  
He doesn’t know why, but sometimes his fingers itch to unbraid her braid, more than once he had wondered if there was a meaning behind it, but he doesn’t dare to ask, afraid he would invade her privacy. 

He stares out of the slightly dampened cockpit window, hoping to spot Cara’s silhouette coming nearer through the freezing night, but there is no Cara far and wide. It's dark outside, darker than on most planets, even though this planet has three moons. The moons are gleaming only slightly, surrounded by a dark red shimmer, making the little light seem almost spooky. Only his visor allows him to see more than just shadows.

He slightly shakes his head but doesn’t stop staring into the reddish darkness.

When he finally recognizes Cara’s limping shadow, slowing walking toward his ship, he instantly knows that it had been one of the more reckless fights, probably including weapons instead of only the participant's bodies. 

Swiftly he goes down to lower the ramp at the back of his ship, but not without looking if the little one is still asleep in his hammock. Luckily, he is indeed quietly snoring, his chubby fingers twitching every now and then. Din doesn’t like it when the kid sees Cara’s injuries after a fight, he can barely manage to see her in pain, how could his son be able to cope with it?

Against his urge to help her up the ramp he just stands there and watches her how she slowly agonizes herself with getting up on her one. He knows that it already hurts her pride that he insists on tenting her wounds.

With a pained wince, she sinks onto the chair he already set up when he prepared the medkit on the small shelf next to the chair.

Now that she is sitting in the light, he silently looks at the injuries that aren’t covered by her clothes. There’s a nasty cut on her forehead, a still pale bruise next to her left eye, and her nose is bleeding, but at least it doesn’t seem broken. 

Without saying a word, he puts a bactapatch on the cut on her forehead, it looks deep, but he hopes it’ll heal without stitches.

“Take off your clothes, please” he mumbles, he doesn’t quite know why, but somehow, he’s mad at her, probably for constantly putting herself in danger for nothing, she wouldn’t need to pay him those credits.

“Go on a date with me first?” she huffs amused, arching one eyebrow and her lips curls into that typical smile again.

He sighs. How can she still make jokes when she’s obviously in pain?

“Fine” she resigns “Be mad at me if you want to.”

“I’m not mad at you” He retorts, but even he can detect the lie in his words.

“Yes, you are!” she exclaims, and he nods. She’s right, he is mad at her, furious even, but he knows that behind all this rage is that aching sorrow, caused by love.

She slowly removes her jacket and boots, followed by her pants and her t-shirt, leaving her only in socks and underwear.

He can’t keep his look from shortly lingering on her chest, he never can, no matter how often he has seen her like this by now. 

“Knives again?” he asks when he spots the deep cuts on her thigh and abdomen. She bites her lip, lowering her gaze to the floor, and slightly nods.

“How many times do I need to tell you that you don’t need to pay any rent before you finally stop taking those fights?” He asks her like he does every time.

She doesn’t answer him, instead, she slightly winces when he starts stitching up the wound on her abdomen.

“I may be rude sometimes, but I’m a good tenant, I pay my rent” she answers as soon as she has adjusted to the pain.

“Cara, I…” he stops… He doesn’t even know what he wanted to tell her, maybe that he would be doing him a favor if she finally stopped taking these fights, or maybe how much she means to him and the kid, that he loves her? Or maybe just that he never even set an amount of rent the crest was worth.

He continues to fix the cuts on her thigh, as always, he can’t resist letting his finger slide over the soft skin, covering her strong muscles…more than once he had realized that she looked exactly like a Mandalorian goddess from the fairy tales his buir had told him when he was younger.

He doesn’t even remember how many nights he had dreamed about her or lay awake in sleepless thoughts about her bitten lips and soft curves. How much he’d love to touch her not just to tend her injuries after these kriffing fights.

“Din, everything okay?” Cara’s question startles him out of his thoughts, his hands still holding on to her thigh, her wound only half stitched.

“Yeah, sorry” he whispers in response, hastily continuing his task.

“You know you don’t have to…” Cara starts but he instantly cuts her off.

“Yes, I do, if you need to pay unnecessary rent I have to take care of your injuries” He doesn’t even realize how his voice gets louder, while he talks himself into range “I wouldn’t have to fix you, If you’d finally stop participating in those fights, Haar'chak!*”

When he finally looks up from her wound, still kneeling in front of her, she turns her head away from him biting her lip, causing blood to dye her teeth slightly red, tears glistening in her eyes.

 _‘kriff, what have I done'_ it flashes through his mind, he never has seen her cry before.

“Cara, I’m sorry… I…” His voice breaks “Please look at me” he pleads.

When she finally looks at him her tears are already gone, only a small red droplet, slowly finding its way from her lip down to her chin indicates that something has been wrong.

“Sorry, that was…” she pauses, seemingly searching for the right word “…unprofessional” she finally says and it's like a blaster shot through his heart. ‘Unprofessional’ it echoes through his head… So, for her, there was nothing more than a professional partnership? He doesn’t want to believe that, he can’t. 

“Cara, we both know this isn’t about business” He hears himself say, amazed at how strong his voice sounds, while he feels all but certain about that statement.

“No” she whispers, looking down at her feet again “It’s not about business.”

Din still isn’t sure what happened that made the atmosphere between them shift like that, what made her go from being a confident and cheeky woman to being so sad and serious, almost shy. 

For a short moment, it feels like he doesn’t know the beautiful half-naked woman in front of him, but he does know her.  
It doesn’t take him long to realize that Cara wasn’t fighting in these fights to pay rent, it was only an excuse to do so in front of him, or maybe she was even telling it herself, but the real reason was that she wanted to forget. She wanted to overpower her emotional pain with physical pain. Behind that tough facade, she felt worthless… Din knew all these feelings, from when he had lost his parents, but Cara? She had lost her whole planet; how could he possibly think that she was fine after everything she’s been through? The war, the destruction of Alderaan, and know there is a bounty on her head.

Softly he takes her hand into his, only now he realizes how small her hands are without gloves, at least compared to his. His thumbs slowly flick over an already fading bruise on her wrist, probably from her last fight.

“It’s been six years today” She mumbles like she has read his thoughts, or maybe she just said it to herself, he isn’t sure, but he instantly knows that she was referring to Alderaan. That explained why she was in even worse condition than she usually was after fights.

“Do you trust me, Cara?” he asks her, his voice soft like he could scare her away with any too harsh word.

She nods, eyes glossy again, however this time she tries to hold his gaze.

“Close your eyes” he whispers, and she does, one tear for each eye slowing making their way down her cheeks. He tenderly wipes them away with his thumbs before he finally removes his helmet. He wouldn’t mind Cara seeing him at this moment, but this was about Cara, not about him, and showing her his face was something he’d do for himself, not for her. She would never want him to break his creed for her, even though it wasn’t breaking it if he followed his buir’s advice, right? But this wasn’t the moment to let her see his face, it would be too much to cope with for her, not today.

Carefully he places his helmet on the shelf next to her chair before gets on his knees again, this time beside her. He takes one of her hands again, placing soft kisses on the cuts and bruises on her arm, some of them are older from previous fights almost gone, but some are fresh from today's fight, she doesn’t flinch, not even the slightest, but he hears her breath hitch.

“You are the most beautiful, the kindest and bravest person I’ve ever meet” he mumbles against her soft skin, before he finally gets up again, only to pull her onto her feet too in the next moment. 

She’s standing so close to him, he can feel her warm breath, can smell her scent, something like vanilla, mixed with a slight note of sweat, caused by the previous events of this night. Only now he realizes that he had never really inhaled her wonderfully captivating scent before, his helmet always filtered most of it.

“Please…” he whispers, kissing the bruise next to her eye “Don’t let yourself get hurt like this for nothing, please don’t pay rent” He continues, before he places a short peck on the tip of her nose.

“I…” she starts, but he silences her by laying his index finger on her lips. 

“I can’t stand to see you getting hurt for nothing more than a few credits,” He says while he leans his forehead against hers “I love you Carasynthia Dune” It’s only a whisper almost inaudible, but he hopes she heard him anyway. 

Before he knows what is happening, he feels her lips on his, warm and rough from her biting. Just when she is about to stop, he finally reacts, laying his hands on her waist to pull her closer, deepening their kiss. It had been a while since Din had kissed someone, but he couldn’t remember that it had ever felt so good, so right.

He can taste the blood from her tattered lips, but neither of them is willing to stop. His heart is racing when he slowly starts to explore her lower lip with the tip of his tongue. The taste of blood intensifies, his tongue tenderly sensing every little unevenness. It isn’t long until she slightly parts her lips for their tongues to meet, intensifying the kiss. Din walks her a few steps backward, pressing her against the wall to minimize the space between them, coaxing a quiet moan out of her. He hadn’t even realized how his hands had started to wander over her naked skin, trying to memorize every detail of her soft curves.

It takes all his willpower to break away from her sweet lips, he’d love to proceed with what she is offering with her behavior, but he knows he shouldn’t. Tonight, she's vulnerable, not his tough and confident Cara. He wouldn’t want her to regret it afterward, that kiss was already more than he had planned, but kriff it has been amazing, he really hopes that he gets the chance to kiss her again.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading it, I still practice writing fluffier fics, but I couldn't resist writing some angst for this one :)  
> As always I love reading your opinion on my fics :)


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